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Do you understand your baby’s needs? A baby’s needs are simple, but some of them are less obvious than others. In general, babies have three sets of needs: physical, emotional and developmental. Make sure you’re meeting all of them by checking out this list.

I was very lucky with my son. He knew how to feed, was extremely alert at birth and never had any problems with latching.

This April, we welcomed our daughter into our family. She was an entirely different story. She didn’t latch well, and didn’t seem too interested in the breast. She then developed jaundice which made her sleepy and disinterested in feeding. It would take 5-10 minutes to get her latched on and then she would often slip off or fall asleep within seconds.

Jaundice is extremely common in newborns and not usually a cause for concern unless it is severe. However, the symptoms of sleepiness and lethargy can cause problems for breastfeeding. There is also a risk it will get worse if they are not feeding enough.

What things are helpful for this situation? We didn’t resort to using formula and breastfeeding is improving. Here’s some tips if you encounter problems establishing breastfeeding with your newborn.

There’s a lot of things that can sabotage your breastfeeding efforts early on. I highly recommend that you educate yourself during pregnancy or take a refresher course even if it’s your 2nd+ child.

There’s so many important things that other bloggers miss in their articles too. I’ve seen plenty of articles about pumping schedules, diets and supplements, the claim that it’s all supply and demand. They miss they fact that a healthy bond with your baby is an essential component for breastfeeding…

Is your baby crying a lot? Do you wonder what the secret is for having a chilled out, happy baby?

People often comment to me how relaxed and happy my son is. He has a bad day now and again, but generally he is a very easy, relaxed baby. That’s not to say he just sits around, he’s quite active. However, he rarely cries, is often capable of entertaining himself, and happy.

These are my tips on surviving the newborn period with minimal crying.

My main anxiety regarding baby care as a new parent was bathing. I worried that a squirmy, slippery baby would slip from my hands and get injured. I had heard a long time ago that the bathroom is the most deadly room in a home, it’s full of hard surfaces which are often wet, and become slippery. Bathtubs also create a drowning hazard. The thought of giving my newborn a bath terrified me….

I am sure there’s a lot of people who don’t like the idea of cloth diapers, particularly the toweling kind as opposed to the new modern ones. I chose to diaper my baby the old way.. I hate spending money on things that I know I’m just going to put in the garbage. It seemed senseless to me to be buying something that my child is only going to poop/pee in and then needs to be thrown out. I also didn’t want my sons first legacy to the earth to be a mountain of landfill. Yeah, I looked into the overpriced “biodegradable” diapers, and I have some bad news. If you’re putting them in the garbage and sending them to landfill, you’re not doing the environment any favors. there is not much decomposing going on in landfills due to lack of airflow. Those of you who know about composting will know that airflow is essential for efficient decomposition. if your heap doesn’t get turned, it will stink and decay very slowly. No matter what goes into a landfill, it’s not going to breakdown any time soon, so, unless you’re composting those biodegradable diapers yourself, you’re essentially paying more to only feel like you did something good when in reality you’re still contributing to the problem.
When I looked into cloth diapers I wasn’t expecting it to be easy, but it was something that I wanted to do anyway. I can say now I’m so glad that I’ve done it, and it’s not as difficult as I expected. It is well worth it for the saved money, the lessened environmental impact, and not having your child suffer with nasty diaper rashes caused by synthetic materials and the moist, non-breathable environment that disposable diapers create.